Facebook Publication Date: 11/24/22 11:11 AM
It’s warm here in San Diego this Thanksgiving. Flip Flop warm; tank top warm; popsicle warm, here on a day where the usual images we think of are of sweaters and scarves and cocoa.
That’s ok. Thanksgiving in this vast country of ours comes in many forms. For some, today is indeed a day for the traditional…welp…traditions (sorry), for the beans made in the same way great aunt Ginny made them; stuffing with the chiles dried in the back of the house that Grandpa grows every year, turkey dry rubbed and roasted the way it has been for years and years and years.
But sometimes, new additions to our traditions are introduced. Elote corn instead of the creamed corn we have always had. Cranberries with surprising Mediterranean spices. Collard greens right next to the green beans.
What does all this have to do with courage? A lot.
Thanksgiving is (and for now, just for now, we are going to focus only on the good; there is a lot that is concerning about Thanksgiving from the perspective of the marginalized; the Native and the Africans whose stories are not embedded into the traditional Thanksgiving narrative; that’s for another reflection) about gratitude, but it is also about courage.
Then and now. As much as it took courage for the first families to trek across the Atlantic, so it took courage for the people the British sojourners found here–people already native to this land–to welcome them, with no idea of what this introduction and short lived affiliation would wrought. It took courage for Africans, and later their descendants, to forge a life and a culture out of fracture and oppression. It took courage for those who migrated from Asia that, through our rail system, literally built our country. It took courage for those coming through Ellis Island.
And that courage continues. For those for whom the border crossed, who are as much of the American tapestry as any other; for the Native sovereign nations who are asserting their rightful place in this American Experiment, for people who crossed from the Pacific, who have staffed our Navy, and have contributed much, and for descendents of African enslaved, whose very blood is drenched into the America we celebrate today.
And that courage shows up on our Thanksgiving tables. Both in the shared traditions, the traditions handed down from our various ancestors, and the new elements, sometimes a mishmash of cultures that could only have happened here.
Courage is not only carved out for today, though. Just this past week, I have been privileged to walk with people whose courage and integrity sparked this meditation. Both stood up, at great cost to themselves, with only the promise of an uncertain outcome.
But this is such an important element of integrity and courage, yes? When we think of our various ancestors, whether here through Middle Passage, or as unwitting and later unwilling hosts, or here by choice, whether economic or existential, what stands out is indeed uncertainty. That was true then, and it is true now.
As we walk together here in our relentless pursuit of racial justice and applied ethics, I am sometimes so aware of the uncertainty I invite you into. You will not always have unambiguous good outcome.
Not everyone will appreciate your new offering to the Thanksgiving table.
But some will. Some will savor every bite, ask you for the recipe, scrape the bowl clean–and next year they will have the courage to offer something new themselves.
This is a big part of what I have always felt, and still feel, is the promise of the America we have collectively forged.
Courage, gratitude, and grace.
My wish for you all this Thanksgiving, and throughout this Holiday Season.
In Hesed Heart,
your lace
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